ESPN fires Detroit's Rob Parker less than a month after his racially-charged Robert Griffin III rant

Rob Parker, a former Detroit News and Detroit Free Press columnist, was reportedly fired Tuesday by ESPN. The firing came less than a month after his on-air racially-charged rant about Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III. ESPN

Pro Football Talk, however, claims the statements are spin from the network.

A snippet from its report:

"ESPN can spin this as simply a decision not to renew his contract, rather than a firing, but the reality is that ESPN specifically stated on December 20 that Parker had been suspended for 30 days, and as of December 20, ESPN was expecting Parker back at the end of his 30-day suspension. (He made the comments on December 13, so a 30-day suspension from that date would have ended on January 12.)"

ESPN's reported firing of Parker likely won't affect his standing with Detroit's WDIV-TV (Channel 4). Parker had been serving a 30-day suspension from ESPN's programming before the network's move.

When pressed on the matter by Scillian, Parker said his criticism of
RG3 stems from "conversations that's had in the black community when
athletes and famous entertainers or whatever push away from their
people."

"And that's really what it's about. You saw with O.J. Simpson and
some other people where they said 'Well, I'm not black, I'm O.J,'"
Parker explained. "So it's more about that, not about RG3 and what's
going on.

"It's more about this thing that we've battled for years - why people have pushed away from their people. It's more about that."

"Looking back at some of the comments, I can see how some people can
take it out of context and run with it," Parker said. "But the response,
and what happened over the past 30 days and everything was just
shocking."

What do you think ESPN's firing of Parker? Should WDIV-TV follow suit?